So you have the ship manifest? Can you provide some details like their year of arrival, estimated year of birth for you GGGPs? Where did they live in the US? The more clues you provide the better we can help.

Here is Umberto's US Naturalization Record. Notice that his last name is spelled Vollaro. Declaration of Intent filed 1922.
He was living at 6329 Hamilton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA
His wife and children were still in Italy
His date of birth was 22 September 1884
Wife Maria, born 1880 (no month or day given)
Children: (All were born in and reside in Italy)
Gaetano born 28 April 1907
Assunta born 8 August 1908
Francesco born 10 January 1910
Carmela born 10 February 1912

Thank you very much. I should have told you that I do have this information. I just began a family tree on ancestry.com. You are welcome to go to my tree -- it's under "jarisko" as the user and the tree is the "Rusnack Family Tree"

Since you have your GGGF's birthdate and comune, you can write directly to Santa Maria Capua Vetere and request his birth and marriage records.
You should write in Italian and send an addressed, but NOT stamped, return envelope. Here is a link to form letter in Italian.

I have sent away to other comunes for records, but not to SMCV. Some comunes take longer than others to reply...some don't reply at all (for a variety of reasons). Most often there is no charge for these records, but a suggestion has been made to include an International Reply Coupon, available at your Post Office (about $1.20) which might cover the return postage. There are some comunes that will require some payment for sending records, but I haven't found that to be so common.
There are some posters here at the forum who have found the LDS microfilm records from S. Maria Capua Vetere to be very good. Once you find a record there you can post it here for translation.

Thank you so much. I love this forum and I only wish I found it a long time ago! I truly appreciate your help and I wish I could help you. Let me know! Not that I believe I have great genealogical skills! I'm trying though. I feel like a detective who is succeeding, slow and steady!

Anyway, thanks for the information about the records - -and the Good Luck! I will certainly keep you posted. And I know I'll be back for translation. By the way, do you trust the Google Translator site? A member of ancestry.com suggested I try it. But, I have no way of knowing if it is accurate -- or even close.

Which conditions may have an effect - positive or negative - on your Italian family history project. The following insights, based on many years of experience in Italy, pertain to factors that have very little to do with Italian genealogy per se, but involve vast cultural differences that influence ...

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